Envy

I didn't go there very often, but I remember coming there on occasion. Well, let's open our Bibles this morning and we'll continue to allow the Lord to speak to our hearts. This is a sermon that we could spend a lot of time on.

Not the sermon this morning, but the sermon that Stephen is giving. Stephen is communicating here to the council. Stephen has been ordained as a deacon.

Evidently, Stephen doesn't believe like many that, well, I'm a deacon, so I just spend my time over here with the widows. He did do that, but he understood, as the whole church did, that as a Christian we have a responsibility to preach the Word. So Stephen is out doing wonderful things, preaching the Word, and he is then brought in to a council.

Many aged Jews and leaders, elders are there. And they talk to Stephen, but Stephen is so wise. And not only is he wise, but he's got a beautiful spirit about him.

And that frustrates them, because they're frustrated old men probably and condemned in their own consciences. And there's this guy who has a good spirit, who's speaking the truth. And so they, like I said last week, if you can't kill the message, then try to kill the messenger.

And so they decide that they're going to set up false witnesses, stir up the people against Stephen to try to stop his message. And verse 15 of chapter 6 says, And all they that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. I don't know what kind of a face that is.

Maybe like Brother Chris's over here. But the face of an angel, something about that face that made him appear just peaceful and serene and probably joyful. Even in the midst of false accusation and threats and people rising up against him.

And so they were not able to resist the wisdom by which he spake. And these false witnesses were brought. And it says in chapter 7, verse 1, Then said the high priest, Are these things so? Answer on these false accusations.

And of course Stephen is not concerned about his own life. He's not concerned about his own reputation. Stephen doesn't even bother with these accusations, because he's truly dead to self.

And I don't need to defend myself, I'm dead. And he's truly a non-resistant individual. And so people accuse him.

Dead people don't respond to accusations. Like Jesus, answer them not a word. Well, he went right into some truth.

And he started to speak to them about the truth. And I shared with you last week, he starts off with Abraham. Now there's four men that he mentions.

And these four men are Abraham and Joseph, which we'll talk about this morning. And then Moses and David. These are four patriarchs, the four pillars in Judaism.

Abraham last week was the father of the Jewish people. We'll talk about Joseph, then Moses and David. And by the way, faith is going to be an issue here that Stephen is going to address.

But these are men who are in Hebrews 11. He started with Abel, and then Enoch, and Noah, and then you move to Abraham, and then Joseph, and then Moses, which takes up a lot of Hebrews 11, and then David. And so these are men of faith.

And what we're going to see here is that these men of faith were rejected by the Jewish people, in large part. And they suffered at the hands of the Jewish people. And so last week we talked about Abraham.

Abraham, he's a father of the Jewish people. He's a father of faith. And I'd like you to go back to Acts 7, because here's where we're trying to head.

This is a conclusion in Acts 7, verse 51. It's very important, because Stephen is bringing the sermon to this point. And everything in the sermon is to be brought to this point.

This is the invitation. In Acts 7, verse 51, he says, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you.

In other words, God wants to walk with you. God wants to direct you like a horse with a tender neck in the bridle. Just very simple, easy to be led.

God wants you to trust in Him and have a circumcised heart, a heart that is separated, cut off from the world, cut off from the affections of this world, and someone whose heart is in love with Jesus Christ. A circumcised heart. And these people didn't have it.

They had religion. We'll talk about that. But they didn't have a circumcised heart and a tender neck.

And therefore, they were not walking with God. They were not walking by faith. But here's a man full of faith and full of the Spirit.

He's a man that's walking with God. A man that's walking by faith. A man with a circumcised heart.

A man with circumcised ears. You know what circumcised ears are? I've given illustrations on that over the years. But circumcised ears are always tied to our heart.

And what we love in our heart, we hear with our ears. And so if the heart is circumcised, the ears will hear the proper things. Two men are walking down the street in a busy city, and one stomps and says, did you hear that? The other guy says, what? Someone just dropped a coin on the sidewalk.

You know, someone who loves money, picks that up right like that. Ooh, there's some money. And we hear what we love.

And when you love Jesus, guess whose voice you hear? You hear His voice. Today, if you will hear His voice, harden, don't stiff your neck, harden not your heart. And so hearing His voice is tied to affection.

It's tied to what we love. And if you don't love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, you'll come to church every Sunday, and you'll never hear His voice. And nothing will change in your life.

And you'll go through your Christian experience, and there'll be no change, because you're not hearing His voice. And so, as you sit here this morning, do you love the Lord Jesus? Hebrews 11 talks about faith here. Abraham was the one we talked about last Sunday.

But it says, By faith Abraham, when he was called, Abraham heard the voice of God. He was called. He had a tender heart and an open ear.

When he was called to go out into a place which he should have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed. He wasn't stiff-necked. He was circumcised in heart.

And so when he hears the call of God, he says, Yes, sir, Lord, I'm going to do whatever You say. Even though You're going to call me to go out into the land, I don't even know where I'm going. I'm going to obey.

And a very tender heart and very open ear Abraham had. He was not a stiff-necked individual. But this mission, and I want to talk about this because this whole sermon is heading in this direction.

This whole nation, in large part, is a stiff-necked people. And God has been trying to lead them, but they're not hearing His voice. And they're very religious people.

And this is a message for us here this morning because we also can be a very religious people, but a stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. And because of their condition, and we'll conclude a sermon with this later on, but because of their condition, they persecuted those who were walking with God. And throughout history, this has been the case.

They are persecuting those who are right with God, who live by faith, who walk in the Spirit. It starts off with Abel. Abel hears the voice of God.

He brings the right offering. Cain does not hear the voice of God. He goes his own way.

And guess what happens? Cain kills Abel, the very first martyr. And throughout the Bible, you see this over and over again. Those who walk by faith, those who listen to the voice of God and walk in the Spirit are always being persecuted by religious people who have established a system and are not living in a God-honoring and a God-pleasing way.

And I can go through the Bible. There's many examples of this. Stephen's going to experience this.

He's going to get martyred by the same religious people who say they believe in God. Joseph is going to get thrown into a pit. Moses is also going to be rejected by the people of God.

He's going to flee for 40 years before God finally calls him out. And then David will be chased down by Saul and his army. And so those who have a heart after God have always been under the affliction of the religious.

And by the way, the best example of that is Jesus. He heard the voice of His Father and was very tender, and yet they hated Him. And they persecuted Him.

And finally, they martyred Him. Now I want to draw on the board something. I know some of you like illustration, but there's so much here to talk about.

But the message, we're going to get down to this when we talk about Joseph. But some of these things I've shared with you in the past, there's a little different twist to them here. But these are the kind of hearts that we're talking about here and Stephen is preaching to.

These stiff-necked and uncircumcised hearts and ears. Now over here, this heart is the heart that is right with God. This heart is the heart that loves Jesus who has its first love.

And this is Stephen. He is full of faith in the Holy Spirit. He's in the right place.

Over here is a heart that's an unconverted heart or a heart that's carnal, a heart that loves the world. And we talk about the heathen out there and what they do. They don't love the Lord.

Most of them curse the Lord. And so you have those who love the Lord and those who don't love the Lord. And Stephen is not going to get martyred by these people.

He's going to get martyred by this heart that is in the middle. This heart that has left the Lord, that is moving towards the world, moving in this direction, but it's a heart that is a darkened heart. It's a carnal heart.

But there's one difference between this heart and the heart that is in the world. This heart here, because it doesn't want to go... You know how religious people are. I don't want to go clear over here and look like the world and be like the world in every aspect.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put on an external, outward appearance of righteousness even though my heart is not in a good place. And so the Jewish people and those who are actually Stephen is preaching to are in this condition right here. They're not like the publican and the sinner down here.

They are very religious people, devout, appearing wise. They look good. Jesus said outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but inwardly their hearts are just like the world.

They're angry. They're bitter. They're unforgiving.

Their hearts are full of lust. They're envious. We'll see that here in just a minute.

They're jealous. There's strife in their hearts. They're just like the world, but they have a facade.

And so Stephen is preaching to these stiff-necked, religious, yes, but they're not willing to walk by faith. They're not willing to be led by the Spirit of God. And so here they are.

They have a conscience. You know, there's a lot of people like this. They have a conscience.

And they know that everybody will kind of feel, oh, they're going to the world if they go this way. And so they kind of put a covering on. They clothe themselves.

They put an external appearance of righteousness. And yet their heart is very much far from God. And so that's possible to have an appearance of righteousness and be far from the Lord, keeping that outward appearance.

I read this verse last week, Romans 8, 28. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, right? And that circumcision, he says in Romans, is of the heart. Remember what Stephen said? You're uncircumcised in heart and ears.

That circumcision which is in the heart, a heart that is separated to love God and to serve God, not a heart that is in love with the world, yet has all the religious trappings on the outside, but its heart is pursuing the things of this world. Now, I've shared this in a couple of churches. I get kicked out of churches for this next thing I'm going to share with you.

I mean, literally. They don't invite me back. People don't like this, this concept.

So I'll let you know ahead of time. Don't kick me out. But this is reality.

And it's hard for many people to accept, but this is the truth. This is a very dangerous place to be right here. Very dangerous place to be.

And the Bible speaks a lot to this place. Jesus said, I would that thou were either hot or cold than to be lukewarm. Now you'd think, oh, lukewarm is better than being cold.

But the Lord says, no, I would rather you be on either extreme. And here's something I shared with you in the past, but it's an amazing concept. Jesus talked to these people, these Jews in the book of Matthew, and he told them that the harlots and the publicans go into the kingdom of God before you do.

Now why is that? Because these people over here are honest with who they really are. You know, honesty is always a good thing. Honesty represents that light Arlen had up here.

I am going to be honest with who I am. The harlot's out there in the street corner. She's got dressed like she's a harlot.

She's advertising herself as a harlot. She knows she's a harlot. She knows she's going to go to hell.

I can deal with a person like that, a girl like that. Better yet, you're a harlot or a publican. The publicans were public about their sin.

They were from door to door collecting taxes. Everybody knew who they were. And oftentimes they were swindling people out of their money.

And they were who they were. They were honest. So the Lord says these people go into the kingdom of God first because they're at least able to say like I said this morning, Lord, I'm a wicked sinner.

I know who I am. And God says I can reach you at that point. But in the middle here is a dangerous place, and we need to remember this.

It's a dangerous place to be because this is a very deceptive world. Inside the heart, your heart is going after other loves and affections and cares, and yet you put on an appearance outwardly that you are religious. You're a Christian.

And yet your heart. And so you're living in a deceptive realm. At least this person's living in a truthful realm.

Yes? The devil's deceiving them in their sin, but at least they're honest with who they are. And so in a sense, the Lord says, I'd rather you be over here, Jews, because at least I can get to you over here. And so these are the type of people that Stephen is talking about.

Now here's the challenge for all of us, and this is where I get myself in trouble. A lot of people think this is a better place to be. You know, we have children here.

I have children. And oftentimes we think, well, my children, we don't want them to come clear over here, you know, and just everyone sees them as just a sinner, and they put on tattoos, and they wear their hair down and put on makeup and wear all this crazy dress and just love the world. I don't want them to appear down here.

I'm a very proud parent. I'd rather at least they hide their heart with some good clothing. Amen? Yeah.

Makes us feel better, doesn't it? At least my child looks good. At least they're on the outside doing pretty good because I'm forcing them to do it. And so you have this heart that is masquerading as something that they're not really who they represent, that they are.

And I think we like that. We feel more comfortable. Fill up our church with these kind of people.

But you know what? These kind of people, God just, yeah. You see it in Matthew. How can you escape the damnation of hell, you hypocrite? You know what? If anything, I want to avoid that thing right there.

Lord help me, right? Now, moms, you like it. You much prefer this. At least my children look good.

At least they look good. At least the people in the church think they're doing halfway as decent. But in reality, it's like the Lord says, no, just let them come down here.

Let the prodigal go. Let him experience what's really his sin, his life. And maybe I can get him.

I can bring him to repentance. And we tend to think lukewarm is certainly better than cold. I'd rather take a lukewarm shower than a cold one.

Nobody wants to look. I like to stand in the hot shower. And so what we do is we fill up the churches with people whose hearts are right here, but they look so good, right? And the church ends up being, like Paul said, a form.

There's no power. There's no power in this life here, is there? No power at all. There's a form.

Looks good. Look at how they're dressed. Look at how they have an appearance.

And truthfully, a lot of us are in that situation, let's be honest. And we miss out on many things. It's a very deceptive place to live.

And so what happens, and there's many things we could learn here, I'd like to just spend a little time, but what happens in this situation here, much like with the Jewish people that Stephen is talking to, is when you don't have anything on the inside, what do you emphasize then? You emphasize the outside because that's all you have, and you know that you're dark on the inside and you have many problems internally, and so your religion becomes an external. Everything is the most important thing is the externals because that's all you have. You don't talk about the internals and attitudes.

And that's the way the Jews were, and Stephen is dealing with people like this, that all they deal with is externals. Jesus said, outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. They're ravening wolves.

I mean, they're destructive. They have anger, and they're bitter, and they devour. And you know what they're going to do here? They're going to devour Stephen.

In a minute. They just got done devouring Jesus in their anger and hatred, and we're going to see their envy, and now they're going to devour Stephen in all their religious garb. And so right here is when we elevate tradition.

We elevate culture. We elevate commandments and doctrines of men. We raise these things up.

By the way, every one of those things, traditions, culture, they all deal with the externals. And so these things become the most important. And of course, you go back to Judaism, it was culture.

It was tradition. It was those things that they elevated. And there are many things that we could talk about here.

Something else that happens in this heart is it becomes a men-pleasing heart. Men-pleases. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

And so if you're in this condition, your heart is far from God, but yet you have an external appearance, you're going to want to be a men-pleaser. You know you can't please God because your heart's a mess. And so you're seeking the pleasure to please men.

It's interesting. I think I might have read this verse last week, and I'm talking about these people that, because we're going to get into Joseph here, and it's going to tie together, but these people that Stephen are preaching to, what kind of people they are. Stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears.

In Romans 2, speaking about being a men-pleaser, Paul says this, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. It's not about the outward things. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit.

Your attitude, your spirit, and not in a letter whose praise is not of men, but of God. You know this person over here, Stephen, and he's seeking to please God, because God looks on the heart. This person knows that God looks on the heart, but he doesn't have a good heart.

And so he turns his attention toward pleasing men with externals. Well, many things we could talk about. I'll just mention one more here before we get into Joseph.

What happens if you're in this condition right here? The Bible says the Spirit of God is what moves us to righteousness and holiness. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Over here with this heart that's right with God, God's Spirit works within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Romans 8, one of my favorite verses says, But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So the heart that is right with God has a power within Him to do the will of God. Amen? That was God's design.

What happens when you don't have that power within you? You need a lot of external force to keep you in line. And you'll find that many churches put a lot of external force, a lot of external pressure. The Jews fear.

We saw that in the book of John. You do this, you're out of the community. You do this, we'll excommunicate you.

You do this, you follow that Jesus. You say that He was born blind. Parents will put you out.

And they were in fear. And so oftentimes in these situations, fear keeps people in line. At least externally.

So you have these type of situations that Stephen is addressing. And many people getting together like that, they form a religious system. It's called the Jews.

The Jews were a religious system in Jesus' day. They were a self-willed people. Yet, they conformed to outward things, tradition, standards.

But they had no heart. And let's just make this practical. Oftentimes, we can be pursuing things in this world in our hearts.

We've been pursuing business, money, pleasure, sports, all kinds of things. And yet, try to put on an appearance by dressing a certain way or coming here to church. You know, here we are.

But it's lacking in power. Now I say that all because we're going to move now into Joseph and Moses and David. And these are also men who've been cast out and rejected and persecuted.

Just like Jesus and just like Stephen were cast out by this group of people here. You know, the Romans were over here. It was these people who were wanting to cast out Stephen and the Lord Jesus.

So let's take a look here at Acts 7. And I want to bring out some things regarding Joseph here. Joseph is the second individual that's mentioned by Stephen in his sermon. I'm going to start reading here in Acts 7. Let's look at verse 9. And the patriarchs.

That's the 12 sons of Jacob. The patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there's a beautiful picture there of Christ.

You can see it all the way down through there. Joseph is one of the most beautiful pictures in the Old Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says these patriarchs, these fathers of the faith, moved with envy.

I'm not going to go back and read that story. Most of you know the story. Joseph's brothers, the 11 of them, had envy in their hearts.

They envied Joseph's position with his father. By the way, that's why Jesus was envied. Jesus was one whose father loved him.

And he obeyed his father. And the Jews despised him because he was right with his father. And they were not.

So here you have these patriarchs, these 11 sons of Jacob, and they're moving with envy. Why were they envious? Well, Joseph was their father's favor. He pleased his father.

You know the story of the coat of many colors. And when they looked on Jesus, they saw His face as an angel, just like Stephen. He's pleasing His father.

His father loves Him. Jesus is doing these miracles. He must be connected to His father.

And we're not. And that caused them to be irate in their spirit. Have you ever had that experience? Someone is doing great things for God and they're joyful and you feel like, urgh, I'm backslidden.

You know how that feels? I've been in that position. I wish I could be in their place. They're right with God and they're doing good things and here I am and I know I'm a backslider.

Well, that's how they felt. And so, they moved with envy. Now envy is something that is internal.

And I've been in these groups for 30 years, 31 years, and I've never had a brother's meeting nor never had anyone concerned about envy. All kinds of concerns about this stuff here. All kinds of fighting and fussing about the externals.

But you know, I have never had anyone say, brother, we need to get concerned about envy in the church. I wonder why that is. There's a lot of envy in the church.

There's a lot of issues internally that we let pass because we're in this condition where we're so concerned about how people look externally. And yet, there was envy. Envy is internal.

And there's not many people that are concerned about envy. I've been to many meetings. I was in one about a year and a half ago.

They invited me to come to another state to sit down and help them in a church. They said we have some issues we want to address. I'd almost bet my life on it.

I know what these issues are. They're right here. It's always the same thing.

I'd love to go and sit down in Brother's meeting and people get concerned about internal things. Brother, we have an issue in the church. We have a lot of envy and jealousy.

We need some help. It seems like internal things we don't pay much attention to. But envy... Envy is a deadly sin.

Envy is a dangerous thing. There's some people here probably today who are envious. Envy is one of the works of the flesh.

Envy breeds competition. You know, you go out in the world and you see these sport teams. They play for these national championships or Super Bowls and they compete against each other because they envy that prized position where they can stand and be the winners of the Super Bowl or the national championship.

And everybody envies that position. So in their envy they compete. That's where the whole spirit of competition comes from.

Everybody wants to be the best. Have that place of honor. Churches compete and are envious of one another.

Christian families compete. Yeah. So-and-so family did this.

We've got to do it too. So-and-so individual does this. We've got to do it too.

So-and-so church is doing this. We've got to do it too. I've got some quotes here.

I might have read some of these quotes before. I'll just read a few of them to you. Joseph was thrown in a pit because of envy.

And Stephen goes back to this story because the Jews are envious. They killed Jesus and put Him on a cross because of envy. And by the way, his preaching is probably just ripping them up in the heart.

And they're envious of Stephen. He's sitting there with the face of an angel. And they're bitter and angry.

The envious man frets and pines away when others do well. He can't eat or sleep quietly unless some mischief falls on the person he's envious of. You ever felt that way? Oh, I can't believe so-and-so got that blessing or they got that honor.

That's a serious issue in your heart. You know, no one will ever see it when you come in the door. They don't see that.

They don't see into your heart. But if you come in the door with a miniskirt or you get your face all made up, everybody sees it. But you can come in with an envious heart, nobody will see it unless someone's very perceptive and they perceive your envy.

Let me read you another account here. As a shadow accompanies those that walk in the sun, so envy is a constant companion of those that excel others. As there is no shadow where there is no sun, so there is no envy where there is no prosperity.

As the joys of the happy increase, the sorrows of the envious multiply. I just see Stephen so happy. His face is an angel.

And as his joys increase, their envy just magnifies. Killing! As a ship tossed with continual waves, so the envious is always in trouble of mind, repining at the success of others. Here's a story.

I like this and I've told this one before. I remember reading somewhere in a Grecian story of a man who killed himself through envy. His fellow citizens had reared a statue to one of their number who was a celebrated victor in the public games.

So strong was the feeling of envy which this incited in the breast of one of the hero's rivals that he went forth every night in order, if possible, to destroy that monument. After repeated efforts, he moved it from its pedestal and it fell and its fall crushed him. Ah, I can't stand the fact that this guy is getting glory and honor from being the winner.

I'm going to take it down. And in doing so, he destroyed himself. These Jewish people that Stephen is preaching to are very envious.

They envy Jesus. Why can't we do miracles like that? Why don't we have the throngs of people? Why can't our leaders speak with authority as they do, as he does? Why can't we? We envy him. And in doing so, we'll shut him down.

We'll shut Stephen down. We'll shut them all down. So is there any envy in your heart? I mean, is there anybody in your life that you say, I kind of wish they wouldn't do well.

I kind of wish God wouldn't bless them. I kind of wish they wouldn't get that good job or they wouldn't get that position in the church. I wish that bad things would happen to them.

That's not a good place to be, even young people, envying each other. Well, Joseph is going to end up in a pit because of that little thing called envy. There's a kid, he's a dreamer, and our Father gives him favoritism.

Makes him this coat. Why can't He do that for us? We're going to take him out. Envy.

You know what they should have done? I'm so happy for Joseph. I'm so blessed that Daddy loves Joseph so much and gives him that coat. I'm so blessed for Joseph.

I rejoice with them that rejoice. Right? That's the way we ought to be when others prosper. We ought to be thankful and rejoice with them.

Well, look at verse 9 here. Through envy, these men were willing to destroy a life. And the patriarchs moved with envy and sold Joseph into Egypt.

And nobody knew what was going to happen to Joseph. Maybe he was going to be a slave. But they were willing to discard an individual.

That's how strong and powerful envy can be in your heart. You can destroy a person with envy. Cast him in a pit.

Maybe not kill him, but envy will do that. You know, Jesus lost His life. And pretty soon, probably in the next half hour, Stephen's going to lose his from envy.

And these kind of things is what God's Spirit is trying to convey to these counselors, these leaders that Stephen is talking to. Don't you remember? Don't you remember? You've got the same envy that the patriarchs had of Joseph. You killed him, and you killed the Messiah.

Well, verse 9 says they sold Joseph. Did they sell Jesus? Yeah, they did. 30 pieces of silver.

Sold him to the Jewish leaders. But thankfully, God was with him. Verse 9 says, And God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions.

God was with Jesus too. Jesus said, He hath not left Me alone. And praise God, He has not left us alone either.

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth. And here's something interesting. Verse 10 says, And delivered him out of all his afflictions.

The Lord raised Jesus up from the grave and gave Him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And He made Him governor over Egypt and all his house. Here's a beautiful picture of Christ.

This One who was delivered up by envy was now given a place at the right hand of the King of everything on the earth, Pharaoh. And so here Jesus is raised up. He's at the right hand of God.

Given a great position. But I want to teach you some lessons here on the life of Joseph. The Israelites rejected Joseph.

Joseph, if you read his story, he has a beautiful spirit about him throughout all these things. Someone mentioned here troubles and afflictions today. Joseph's life was full of affliction.

But I want to show you some things that what Joseph was doing that God honored him. Look at some lessons here from the life of Joseph. Those who were persecuting Joseph, his brothers, even in Egypt, in spite of all that Joseph faced, and it was a lot of difficulty, he maintained an excellent spirit.

Joseph had a good heart. And Joseph's attitude, his spirit was excellent. Just like Daniel.

These men who went through great trial and affliction. Daniel taken into Babylonian captivity. In that captivity, he had an excellent spirit.

And that spirit raised him up to a high place. And the same thing is going to happen to Joseph. People see in Joseph an excellent spirit.

And they say, Joseph, come up here. I like you. Now, Joseph doesn't have an excellent spirit because life has gone easy for him.

His excellent spirit is in the midst of great difficulty. By the way, I think this message, if the Spirit of God is using this, it's very convicting to these Jews because they know history. And their hearts, they know their hearts.

And they know Stephen here. His heart is good. And he's filled with the Spirit.

Well, just to give you a few examples of Joseph's life, Joseph is cast into a pit. Can you imagine your brothers betraying you and throwing you into a pit and selling you off into another country, into Egypt? Just put yourself in that condition. Wade? Can you hear me, Wade? Can you imagine your family, your brothers and sisters, throwing you into a pit and selling you? Joseph was a young man.

Selling you into Egypt. What a way to start your young life rejected by your own family. Then he gets thrown into prison in Egypt.

He suffers through a false accusation. You remember the story? Potiphar's wife tries to lure him to have an immoral relationship and Joseph stands his ground and says no, no, no, no. Finally, she concocts this idea and tries to deceive and blame Joseph for trying to approach her and rape her.

And Joseph takes this false accusation and he ends up in prison. That's all Stephen. How he took false accusation.

Now Joseph is being accused. Immoral, immorality. So he's in prison.

You know the story. And these two guys have dreams. This butler and this baker.

And Joseph's a man of God and he has a good spirit. He gets a vision from the Lord. He explains this dream.

And he tells them the whole story. He tells this baker, now remember when you get up to Pharaoh and you tell him this whole thing, remember me. Remind him of me so I can get out.

What's the baker do? Forgets him. This is a tough life he's living. Many injustices he goes through.

But he always has a good spirit and he's trusting God. He's never bitter. We don't see any unforgiveness in him.

Even when he approaches his brothers, there's no unforgiveness there. He actually says, and we could all say this, I went through a very difficult time. You betrayed me.

You treated me like you almost killed me. You gave up my life and threw me in a pit. But you know what? God was in it.

And you might have meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You know, everything that happens in life, it would be good for you to approach it that way. You know, you might have meant that for evil when you tried to kill me, or you tried to slander me, you tried to lie, you tried to steal from me.

But I'll tell you what. I think God was in it. He was trying to work something out in me.

God meant it for good. Well, he's a wonderful example of a good spirit. And the very same way we go through life, we face difficulties and many injustices, many trials, false accusations.

But, like Joseph, we need to have a good heart. And this good heart walks in the Spirit, lives by faith, produces a good spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering.

That just doesn't mean when everything's going well, patience, meekness, temperance, faith, these are the attitudes of those who, even though they're in a prison, even though they're struggling with affliction, are still emanating a good spirit. You know, if you're down here, you don't have anything to emanate a good spirit. And when you go through difficulty, it's, I don't know! Why do these people do this? I want to get back at them! And all the bitterness and anger and frustration and all the things that come out of many who call themselves Christians, and the reason why that stuff comes out of there is because there's a heart that's not in a good place.

It's covered over by good things. But the heart is... Joseph's got a good heart in there. And they're throwing a lot of curveballs at him and hard things, and he's just responding, just like Stephen, the face of an angel.

So, there is coming a day, and maybe sooner than what we think, it says here in Matthew 24, and I'll start in verse 9, you don't have to turn there, but it says, Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted. This is Joseph's life. And they shall kill you and shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake.

And then shall many be offended, shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Are you ready to be delivered up by your brethren? Are you ready to be cast into a prison by your brethren? Jesus said it's coming.

You know, someday the guy that sits down the pew from you is going to call the police. I say this comically and tell the police you've not had your vaccination. Or whatever they're going to be asking.

And then we're going to find out what hearts you're of right here. Or what I'm of. Whether we're really dead, or whether we're very much alive.

Just covered over with a facade. And so, Joseph was betrayed, delivered up, and yet in his heart, he said God's going to use this for good. I don't know what's going on here, but everything that happens, this woman's accusing me falsely, well, trust God.

This baker forgot me in the prison, I'm going to rot here, but I'm going to trust God. My brothers delivered me up to a pit, I'm going to trust God. The Bible says in Peter that Jesus on the cross says He committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

So, these early church, Stephen being one, are having to deal with very angry religious people. Now, we're going to go through the whole book of Acts. There are going to be a lot of these hearts.

Facade, but their spirit is anger, wrath, sedition, bitterness, envy, jealousy, all the works of the flesh, and you'll see it coming out throughout the whole book of Acts. And yet, those people whose hearts are right, they're giving off love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, that's a good thing. Jesus said, the time will come that they which kill you will think they do God's service.

I have no doubt that those people who stoned Stephen thought they were doing God's service. We're the people of God. Those who put Jesus on the cross thought they were doing God's service.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They think they're doing Your service. So, Stephen here brings out Joseph.

And Joseph was one who was rejected by the patriarchs. And Joseph is a picture of Christ. You people who I'm preaching to, your fathers rejected Joseph, cast him in a pit, God raised him up, and He used him to deliver you.

Jesus you have rejected. You've thrown Him in a pit. God has raised Him up and He wants to deliver you.

And we're here to testify of this deliverance because we have a right spirit. We have a right heart. And you can see our heart.

My face is the face of an angel. And you are full of anger, wrath, bitterness, and hatred. And as we go down through life and as things get more difficult, you're going to see more people betraying one another.

Brothers rising up against brothers. And I just want to encourage you to be Joseph all the way down. Be Stephen all the way down.

And have a heart. Listen, if your heart is not in a good place, you're not going to make it. Right? As a matter of fact, when it says, some shall betray, others shall deliver, it goes on to say, and he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

You know, a lot of people are going to be manifested who they really are when you put some heat on, pressure on. Turn with me to 1 Peter. I'm winding down here.

1 Peter 2 Peter discusses this subject. In verse 20, he says, for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you should take it patiently? But if when you do well, like Joseph or Stephen or Jesus and these apostles, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. In other words, that spirit of kindness when people are mean, that spirit of forgiving when people are bitter.

And verse 21, for even here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps. Now keep this in mind. This is not a strange thing for us as a Christian to go through these things.

If Joseph went through them, if Stephen went through them, if Christ went through them, if the early church went through them, it's not an unusual thing for us to be challenged throughout life with afflictions. And some of them can come real close, even inside of family relationships. But let's keep reading.

Verse 22, who did no sin. In all of this, he didn't respond in a sinful way, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. Stephen never reviled.

When he suffered, he threatened not. Stephen mostly would have said, I've got a gun, I want to shoot. He didn't.

No, he just said, Lord, I'm going to trust you. If they take me out, I come to be with you. If they don't, throw me to prison, you'll go with me there too.

We'll have good fellowship there in prison. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed, here's the thing, he committed himself to him, now notice this, he committed himself to him that judges righteously.

Now that's interesting. He says, not just committed himself to him, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. God is a righteous judge.

And how does God judge? God looks where? At the heart. These people, they look good, but God is going to judge righteously. And if you are not being buffeted for your faults, you're buffeting for doing good, you can rest in that, have a good heart.

God will judge righteously. And these people right here, who persecute you like those who are persecuting Stephen, God will take care of it. And he did, didn't he? Historically we see over and over again how the Lord took care of those who persecuted his people.

Sometimes faith calls us to go out and leave everything and not even know where we go. And Abraham is an example of that. And Stephen says, you're not like Abraham.

You're locked in a system. And that system is destroying faith and destroying walking in the Spirit. You're not listening to the voice of God like Abraham.

Sometimes, living by faith, God is calling us to go to a place where we have no idea what works, what we can expect. Sometimes, as Joseph shows us, God will call us to abide under affliction. Even if it's affliction that is not just and calls us by faith to have a Christlike spirit and attitude.

Abraham is a testimony to these Jews of their wayward heart and Joseph is also a testimony to their wayward heart. The book of Acts goes on to say that that same Joseph, there was a famine in the land. And by the way, God works all these things out.

God drove them out and into Joseph's lap, didn't He? Didn't He? He caused a famine that drove them down into Egypt, right to Joseph. And reconciliation was made and Joseph was gracious to his brothers. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.

You know, it took a long time for that to happen. But God is a righteous judge. And so Abraham and Joseph, next week, and this one is going to take probably two or three messages, but Moses takes a lot of this sermon.

Moses, a man of faith. A man that walks with God. But again, a man that's rejected by the Jewish people.

Remember Moses went and tried to help a brother when they were having a dispute? And then one of the brothers said, aren't you the guy that killed that Egyptian last week? And Moses fled. Forty years. So God is interested here.

While man is looking on the outward appearance, God is looking on the heart. And the problem with the nation of Israel is they don't have the internals. I would much rather if you don't have the internals not to put on a facade on the outside because it's simply not only deceiving me, but it's deceiving you and putting you in a place where two-fold more a child of hell.

So let's consider those things. We'll look at Moses next time. A man of faith.

But someone who also was rejected by the nation of Israel. So Stephen is bringing up all these individuals and how the nation has rejected. Rejected.

And then they're going to reject Christ. Okay, let's close in prayer and then we'll open it up if anyone wants to share maybe something God has spoken to your heart. Do we have uncircumcised or circumcised hearts and ears? What is God saying to each one of us about our own life? Lord, we pray for grace and mercy.

Thank You that You're a long-suffering God. And Lord, we see throughout the Scriptures Your great mercy upon the people of God and even throughout the Old Testament calling Your people over and over again to restore relationship with You. The fountain of living water.

And Lord, may we not end up in the same predicament, a form of godliness, external, but we don't concern ourselves with the thoughts and intents of our heart. And Lord, may that be magnified in each of our lives and may we not make the same mistake. May we be very concerned about our attitudes and our thoughts and our motives, Lord.

And Lord, may that be the focus of our heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, Lord, for they shall see God. And so Lord, make us, help us to be pure in heart.

In Jesus' name, Amen. All right. Anything you'd like to share this morning? Okay, John wants to share.

The message today, and I acknowledge that I have failed in those areas at times where that envy and anger was in my heart. And it wasn't until I recognized that the peace of God has left and realized that no matter how right I may be and how wrong I think someone else is, that's really not the point. It's that my heart is far from God and there's no peace in such a place.

And until we repent, that peace is not going to come back, but it will come back when we truly see that it doesn't matter what people do to me, my spirit, I'm responsible for my spirit. And I remember a time where I was struggling. It's just, I don't know what to do.

It's traumatic in your mind and you're battling in your mind. And the words that Christ had shared came to me. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

We don't have to understand all the situation, but our heart must be in a right place. And I got peace. It didn't change the situation, but my heart, I found peace.

I think there's many times, we read through the Psalms, and many places where David prayed against his enemies and prayed for deliverance. And he found peace and joy and victory. But I had to think, how many years was he fleeing for his life from Saul? And God did deliver him, but it was a long time.

He had to be patient a long time. And he had a chance to take Saul out too. He did.

And then I thought of his verses in Psalms where David said twice in verse 67 and 71 in Psalms 119, he says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. In verse 71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. We can just focus on God's goodness and the life of Joseph and how often he was wronged but he had a faith in God that seen him through and it blessed other people's lives.

So many lives were saved because of his faithfulness. Yes, that's true. And so the same way for Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have gone astray.

We have, everyone have gone our own way, but by believing in him, that blood cleanses us from all of our sins. I'm thankful for that. I confess too that I feel like the Lord laid a finger on something in my heart too that as you were preaching and sharing that, I feel like I have been struggling with that spirit of envy in a certain area of my heart.

As we were praying, I was just confessing that to God and just felt like he wanted me to confess that and I just want to be free. And I think that sometimes it just helps us to be honest with envy for others and I want to do that. I just feel like it is an area of my heart that I want to be free.

There is no temptation taking you but such as is common. People don't want to acknowledge it's common, but it is common to all men. In order to rejoice with them that rejoice, one must truly rejoice in the prosperity of others.

In order to weep with them that weep, one must truly feel sorry when people have bad things happen to them. But if you rejoice when people have bad things happen to them and grieve when you have good things happen to them, that's an envious situation. We ought to be able to freely rejoice when people, God blesses someone or God does a miracle, let's rejoice with them.

That's putting him first, not our own personal desires or the world. I appreciate the message and I feel that I'm not really perhaps worthy to say anything here, but what you were talking about ties in well with what Caleb's Bible verse this morning also that he mentioned. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

It doesn't say if you keep my commandments, you love me. So it's that flow from the internal to the externals. If the flow is from the externals to the internals, the externals become distorted.

And it won't get to the internal. So it's not so much, perhaps it's not so much the presence of the externals, it's the distortion because it's going from external to internal and it's not just plain churches that are dealing with this. Liberal churches, love your neighbor, they distort that in justifying homosexuality and social justice type issues with the homeless.

If they make that their focus, it becomes distorted because it goes flowing from the outward to the inward and that's not the way God designed us to be. He designed us for the inward to the outward. Thank you again for the message.

Cleanse first that which is within the cup because that's where God's working first. Anybody else? So many types of Christ in Joseph. It's amazing all the things that we could talk about.

All right, let's not be like the Jewish people and reject God's messengers, his voice. Anybody have any announcements or prayer requests? There's a couple's night coming up, it's getting close, February 12th. Do you need anything? Affirmations, people that are coming? Did we let you know that we're coming? Okay, so Ellie.

So let Ellie know or is she going to take care of that? Okay. We'll just let her. We won't get ahead of the ball there.

And this Thursday Brothers Meeting, if you can make it here on Thursday evening, 7 o'clock. Prayer meetings on Saturday morning, 7 o'clock here at the church. We gather together to pray.

Anyone would like to pray? 7 o'clock. Any other announcements, prayer requests? Yes. Okay, right back here is the list if you want to go.

How many people we need? More. Two more. So it's a trip down where? Somewhere south.

It's always good to go south in the winter. Okay. You want to lend a hand? Chris needs two more volunteers.

Two more volunteers. You need two more volunteers. Okay.

Well, Ephraim, your prayer request you gave us. How's that situation working out? How did the accident happen, do you know? Fell on him? Okay, let's continue to pray. All right, why don't we stand and we'll.

Brother David, why don't you close this and then we'll have a song. Thank you, Lord, for what takes place. Lord, we want to submit.

We want to pass this food. We want to praise you, Lord. I'm pressing on the upward way.

New heights I'm gaining every day. Still praying as I'm onward bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

Lord, lift me up and let me stand. My faith on heaven's table land. A higher plane than I have found.

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.